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House Renovation Diary Part 1

Biting the bullet…

I have been away from the blog of late, and here is the main reason why. I have gone into partnership with a property developer as the designer and project manager, and we have the following property to turn. It is a 3 story Victorian house in central Bristol which we purchased at auction. That in itself was really exciting, I have never been to property auction before, and my business partner had the most rigid arm when it came to our lot! It seems crazy to buy a house in less than 5 minutes, but it is a lot easier than going the usual protracted route. Here is the street it is in.

So, the house. For years it was owned by the Local Authority, and they are now selling them off. So it has been structurally looked after, but the interiors are somewhat horrible. In fact they are really dire. The only original feature left is a lovely winding staircase. Everything else has been ripped out over the years, so a lot will need replacing.

The house has 2-3 reception rooms or 3-4 bedrooms depending on how it is configured. There is also a large kitchen-diner and 2 bathrooms. It also has a garden, which is a good size are rare for a city center house.

Prepare yourself, this is what it looks like now:

Wallpaper over wallpaper, electrics in conduit on the outside of the walls. layers of cheap flooring. I am seeing a lot of skips outside to take the debris as we strip it out. The kitchen and bathrooms are particularly choice!

Only mice live in here at the moment

Institutional chic?

We take possession in early April, and then it will become a whirlwind of activity as we strip. purge, re-wire, re-plumb, move walls and fit new bathrooms and a kitchen. The garden also needs landscaping, fencing and clearing, at the moment it is a breeding ground for brambles, debris and rotten mattresses.

I will continue the story as it slowly evolves. We are looking at a 3-4 month turnaround. For now, I am trying to juggle other work with planning this renovation, so my other blog posts may fall by the wayside a bit. Wish me luck!

Has anyone else out there taken on something that looked this bad to start with?